Sauber has become the first team to announce a definite launch date for its 2012 car, with the C31 set to be unveiled on February 6 - the day before the first test .

The test in Jerez will take place from February 7-10 and will be the first of three pre-season tests. Sauber is likely to be joined by a number of teams launching in the first week of February, with Red Bull, Ferrari and Williams all aiming to get their cars up and running in Jerez.

Last weekend Red Bull technical director Adrian Newey said: "The schedule [for the 2012 car] is to make the first test. As always, it will be tight but I'd be very disappointed if it was not."

While on Friday Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said: "We aim to launch our car in the first week of February. We don't know yet exactly the date, but that's the range where we should be ready with the new car."

Williams technical director Mike Coughlan told his team's online magazine Ignition: "The car is slated to be delivered to the race shop in mid-January and we'll be ready to go to the first test in early February. The aim is that by the end of January, all the parts that can possibly have been verified have been, and the track testing is purely a verification of that work."